Today’s Privacyfix: Enable Twitter’s Do-Not-Track setting

Posted on March 20, 2013 by Ryan Wakely

Followers are what makes Twitter work. A tweet without followers is like a tree that falls in the forest — who cares?

But while you may want more followers, you probably don’t want more trackers. That’s why Twitter was one of the first large sites to recognize Do Not Track (DNT), a browser setting that tells companies that you don’t want your activities across different websites to be combined into a single profile for ads a such. Twitter has access to this kind of cross-site data due to the proliferation of Twitter buttons and social widgets across millions of websites.

Twitter explains: “When you turn on DNT in your browser, we stop collecting the information that allows us to tailor Twitter based on your recent visits to websites that have integrated our buttons or widgets.” So if you have blocked tracking through Privacyfix, you are already sending the Do Not Track signal. If not, you can also make the selection in Twitter’s controls (look under “Personalization”).

As with nearly all privacy choices, there’s a tradeoff. If you don’t allow Twitter to collect this data, they also won’t be able to personalize “Who to follow” suggestions. Personally, the list of people I follow should be enough for Twitter to customize these suggestions, without the need to collect my overall browsing history, too.

If you’re want to learn more about social media privacy, feel free to follow us on Twitter. We promise we won’t spam you with motivational quotes and pictures of cats.

 

Posted in Do Not Track, Folks, Social Network Privacy, Twitter | Leave a comment

Privacyfix, refactored

Posted on March 19, 2013 by Jim Brock

Double Quad EngineIn every long-term software project, there comes a time when you must refactor. By which I mean, take all of the code that has accumulated, step back and completely rebuild the engine based on what you’ve learned since the code was first cut.

This is what we just finished for Privacyfix in version 4.0, and boy does it feel good.

Here are some of the benefits for our loyal users:

  • Faster performance. By which I mean, really faster. Each setting now operates independently, so we only check what we need to check which makes things quick.
  • Better instrumentation. Privacyfix now lets us know if people are having trouble with any settings, so we know when things may need to be fine tuned.
  • Fewer updates. Now we can update core Privacyfix processes from the server, without the need to roll out a new version of the extensions. Smoother sailing for you; less work for us.
  • Better platform. Our new architecture also allows us to add new privacy settings server-side, without changes to the extensions. This will allow us to include other social networks and services much more quickly.
  • Mozilla listing. With dynamic updating, Privacyfix for Firefox is now ready for listing in the Firefox extensions gallery (although review will take several weeks).

As always, let us know what you think!

If you haven’t already installed Privacyfix, this is your moment >>

Posted in Chrome, Firefox, Folks, Privacyfix, Pros, Social Network Privacy | 1 Comment

The Sad State of Social Media Privacy (infographic)

Posted on March 19, 2013 by Ryan Wakely

Social media is becoming a larger part of our culture everyday. Unfortunately, privacy concerns are growing at the same rate. And although developers are quickly updating ways to make social media more enjoyable, are they developing ways to keep the consumer safe?

To put things in perspective, MDG Advertising created this beautiful infographic exposing the tension between social media and privacy.

The Sad State of Social Media Privacy [infographic by MDG Advertising]

Infographic by MDG Advertising

To learn more about social media privacy, visit Privacyfix.com

Posted in Facebook, Folks, Social Network Privacy | Leave a comment

A five-minute guide to LinkedIn privacy

Posted on March 19, 2013 by Jim Brock

LinkedIn is a relatively “open” social network. Because LinkedIn is about professional — rather than personal — connections, many people allow their LinkedIn profile and activity to be viewed by the general public, even if they might not do the same with their Facebook timeline. Nevertheless, you still have quite a few privacy choices to make on LinkedIn, and they’re easy to miss.

Here are some important ones to review. Click the heading to go to the setting.

Review your public profile

This setting is about how your public profile looks to people who you aren’t yet connected with, particularly as they see you in search engines and searches on LinkedIn. LinkedIn gives you some pretty granular controls. Fine tune as you like.

Consider your broadcast setting

If the box is checked, changes to your profile are announced to your connections, including your boss. Need I say more?

Lurk and be lurked

One of your most interesting privacy choices on LinkedIn is whether to allow people to see when you view their profile. Herein lies a nifty tradeoff:  If don’t allow them to see your views, you won’t be able to see theirs when they visit your profile. Which way does that cut for you?

Control access to your activity feed

Your LinkedIn activity feed is kind of like your Facebook timeline, capturing your follows, status updates and other activity around the network. You can make all of this completely public, limited to approved connections or your “network,” which includes connections of connections. You might prefer the former if you’re in the hunt for connections and business opportunities, or if your LinkedIn “life” is strictly business.

Encrypt your LinkedIn visits

No brainer: check the box for an encrypted connection when you visit LinkedIn, so people can’t spoof your cookies or other mischief when you are on public wifi.

Sequester your connections

It’s up to you whether other people can see exactly who you’re connected to. If you consider your network proprietary, select “Only you.” Warning: Your karma may suffer if you pick this setting and still prowl the connections of others!

Thin the herd of apps

Like Facebook, LinkedIn allows third-party apps and sites to have access to your profile and activity with your permission. These permissions tend to accumulate over time, so give them a scan and remove the ones you don’t really use.

Standard closing plug: These tips and more are part of an update currently in development for Privacyfix (your privacy dashboard).

PS Are you following us on Twitter and Facebook?

 

Posted in Folks, LinkedIn, Privacyfix, Social Network Privacy | Leave a comment

Today’s Privacyfix: Keep your Facebook profile out of Google

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Ryan Wakely

Most of our internet activity begins with a search from a search engine like Google (or soon, with Facebook graph search). If you’re active on Facebook, then your Facebook profile may be the first thing that shows up when someone searches your name on Google.

The obvious privacy concern here is that someone can see your basic Facebook profile (or even more), just by searching your name. That “someone” might also be the growing crowd of data miners who assemble a profile about you from all of the data they can find and associate with your identity.

What’s the fix? Here’s how to make sure that your Facebook profile won’t show up as a result in a search engine:

  • Click the Privacy Shortcut Button, located to the right of your name in the Facebook toolbar
  • Click “See More Settings”

  • Click Edit next to “Do you want other search engines to link to your timeline?”

  • Make sure that the box next to “Let other search engines link to your timeline” is unchecked

  • Make sure that you click “Confirm” from the box that pops up. If you do not confirm you choice, then your changes will not save, and your profile will still show up as a result in a search engine.

However, this Privacyfix isn’t for everyone. You may want your Facebook profile to show up as a result when someone performs a search for your name (perhaps during a job search). But we think it’s important that the user is aware of, and has access to, their privacy settings as well as what is happening to their information when they use Facebook.

This fix, and many others, are part of Privacyfix >>

 

Posted in Facebook, Folks, Privacyfix | Leave a comment

Today’s Privacyfix: Review your Facebook Ad Board

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Ryan Wakely

If you’ve used Privacyfix, you probably have a sense of how much data Facebook and Google collect about your profile and how you use the Web (and for most people, that’s a lot). But even with all of that data, how well do they really know you?

One way to tell is to look at the ads that Facebook shows you, since this reflects the interests and characteristics about you that Facebook uses for ad targeting, which is, after all, Facebook’s bread and butter. To see a bunch of ads Facebook thinks are right for you, you can visit your own “Ad Board” by clicking here.

Visit PrivacyFix.com to learn more about Facebook Privacy >>

Posted in Facebook, Folks | Leave a comment

What do your Facebook likes say about who you are?

Posted on March 12, 2013 by Jim Brock

Get your Facebook privacy under control >>

Posted in Folks | Leave a comment

Today’s Privacyfix: Review the Facebook pages that you’ve liked

Posted on March 12, 2013 by Ryan Wakely

Reviewing pages that you’ve liked is one of the easiest ways to control how you appear in Facebook’s new Graph Search feature.

Maybe just for fun you liked something a few years ago, never imagining that someone would be able to simply search for that interest and find your smiling face in the search results. Aside from liking something inappropriate, it’s possible that the things you like say more about you than you think.

Fortunately, reviewing your Likes is easy:

  1. View your Activity Log by visiting your profile and clicking the Activity Log icon underneath your Timeline cover photo
  2. Click the Likes tab
  3. You can go through and review everything you’ve liked on Facebook
  4. To remove something that you’ve Liked, click the pencil to the right of the photo, page, comment, or status that you Liked
  5. Click Unlike

Of course, you also should be careful about the pages that you Like in the future. Sure, it’s funny to like certain pages. But will it still be funny when in a year from now, you show up as a result in a search for,  ”People who like Gangnam Style”?

Visit PrivacyFix.com to learn more about managing Likes and privacy >>

Posted in Facebook, Folks | Leave a comment

Today’s Privacyfix: See yourself as advertisers see you

Posted on March 11, 2013 by Ryan Wakely

You may have heard about the debate raging in Washington D.C. over “Do Not Track,” the idea that you should be able to flick a switch in your browser to prevent marketing companies (over 1,200 of them) from collecting data about what you do across websites and apps.

The marketers say that you don’t need this choice, because the tracking is mostly anonymous, supports free web content and also delivers more relevant ads that people appreciate.

Is the bargain worth it to you? Before you decide, you might want to take a look at what you actually look like to advertisers. Some of the larger companies, like Google and Yahoo!, actually give you a glimpse into the profile that they use for ad targeting. You can take a look at some of these profiles here:

PrivacyChoice Ad Profile Sampler >>

PS Keep in mind that if you are blocking tracking (using Privacyfix or any other tool), you won’t see much or anything on these profile pages. You’ve already made your choice!

 

Posted in Facebook, Folks, Pros | Comments Off

Today’s Privacyfix: See your Facebook profile as others see it

Posted on March 6, 2013 by Ryan Wakely

If you’re a PrivacyFix user, or have been following the PrivacyFix blog, then you’ve learned how to make your Facebook profile private. It’s time to put these privacy fixes to the test and see how much or how little information your Facebook profile shares. You may think that a stranger, or anyone who searches for you on Facebook, is only able to see your name shown under your timeline cover. But how can you really know that your Facebook profile is private?

A simple way to check to see how the privacy settings you have changed affect your profile, and to see what other privacy settings need to be changed, is to view your profile as a stranger sees it. Here’s a walkthrough of how to do this:

To see how someone else views your profile:

  • Click the Privacy Shortcut Button (it’s located to the right of the home button and looks like a lock)
  • Click “Who Can See My Stuff?”
  • Click “View As”
  • You will be lead to your Facebook page as it is viewed publicly. From this page, you will also have the option to view your profile through the eyes of a specific Facebook friend


The ability to view your Facebook profile the way someone else does is an extremely useful feature in terms of Facebook privacy. 

Be sure that when you update your privacy settings on Facebook, you are actively saving your progress. You can tweak your privacy settings all day, but not saving your changes means not securing your profile. Viewing your profile as someone else not only lets you know how the settings you’ve altered have affected your profile, it also lets you know what needs to be changed.

Learn more about Facebook privacy and security at PrivacyFix.com >>

Posted in Folks | Leave a comment